Friday, 19 August 2016

August News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

The guard's letter rack which was started last week has advanced further and is now sporting the obligatory cream colours.

Great Northern Railway (later M&GN) 1887 6 Wheel Third 129

Nothing new to report, drilling and welding has continued nicely.

British Railways 1957 Mark 1 Tourist Second Open E4641

With work concentrating on other coaches in the works, little has been done to E4641. Yet more paint has been applied to the corridor connection bits ready for their eventual refitting. Repainting of the four tyre-turned wheelsets is progressing well and have now been undercoated. It is anticipated that there will be a drive on getting the mechanical underside (bogies, brakes etc) fully completed on this coach next week.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

With the corridor bulkhead now refitted to the third class end of the carriage (featured last week), this has re-created the "corridor" itself which can now be reconstructed. A start has been made on the main wiring loom which runs along this corridor, hidden from public view above the ceiling. In a first for the Suburban 4 project, we have unfortunately found significant sections of wiring that are degraded and require replacing. Luckily, we have an ex-engineer called "Aeroplane Dave" who is on the case and re-pinning the loom to the wall and replacing any sections at the same time. Also in the corridor, the wooden roof "hoops" which support the ceiling panels have been remade (the originals didn't survive the removal process) and fitted into position. A test section of ceiling panel has also been fitted to the corridor, to test that they will fit correctly.

This has taken over the department this week, with a huge effort being put in to progress its preparation for repainting. All the areas that were previously corroded have been body-filled and then sanded back smooth. Areas of bare metal and filler have been spot-primed and flatted back again so the whole vehicle is now ready to receive undercoat.

A bonus, not originally planned, has been the cleaning up of the aluminium window frames and chromed door handles which has further perked up the outside appearance of the vehicle.

The roof, which was prepared last week, has received the first of two coats of flexible paint, and looks very pleasing in its light grey colour, This will contrast nicely with the black we use on the loco-hauled coaching stock and the white used on the vintage stock.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

A visit has been made from the signwriter, and the van now sports LMS lettering. Progress is also being made on repainting the footboards.